Sheet-feeding method and machine



Nv.11,i 1941.

L.. l. MA1- rHEws SHEET-FEEDING-METHOD AND MACHINE f 'Filed March 30, 1940 -little above the conveyor tapes; as'there is not Patented Nov. 1l, 1941 UNITED STATES 2,261,961 snaar-Femme. Mn'rnon AND MACHINE Louis Landau Matthew,

Westerly, R. I., assigner to Maxson Automatic Machinery Company, Westerly, R. I., a corporation of Rhode Island Application March 30, '1940, Serial N0. 326,975

17 Claims.

The present invention relates to methods of and'machines for feeding sheet material, such as paper and theA like. The invention is particularly related -to methods and machines involving high speeds, like those used at paper mills for cutting webs from a roll or rolls into sheets, and feeding the sheets, by means of more or less horizontal conveyor tapes, into a lay-boy or other magazine.

An object of the invention is to provide a new and improved method and machine of the abovedescribed character; Other objects will be described hereinafter and will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In machines of the above-described character, it is necessary to control carefully the feed ot' each on-coming sheet-between the time that it" leaves the cutter and the time that it reaches the conveyor tapes, else the conveyor tapes will not -receive the sheets properly, so as to feed them smoothly into the lay-boy. Once a proper path of travel has been determined for the head of a particular sheet, the heads of the following sheets should also be made to follow that path. This is particularly diillcult in the case of overlapping deliveries, in which the sheets are fed by the conveyor tapes to the lay-boy in lapped relation; for the tail of each sheet must be gotten out of the way before 'the head of the next following sheet a'rrives at the conveyor tapes.

In one type of machine of this character, the sheets, afterthey are out from the paperweb, travel, by their own momentum, at an incline, downward from the cutter, on to `conveyor tapes that are more or less horizontally disposed below the cutter. Owing to the fact that the web has been unwound from a roll in which Ait has acquired a curly set, and also for other reasons, such as air currents, the sheets travel downward from the cutter, on to the conveyor tapes, in slightly curved or bowed form. As the bow or curve is usually with the concavity downward, the head of the sheet has a tendency tcbuckle under at the time .that it engages the conveyor belts, but it may also buckle over. It either ofthese contingencies shouldhappn, the sheets will bei 4 come jumbled up into a hopeless mass von the con veyor tapes long before reaching the lay-boy.

' One of the proposals made to overcome this diiculty has been to position the cutter but very 5 very much vertical space between the cutt'e'r and the conveyor, there is not very much opportunity for the head of the sheet becoming buckled between the time that it leaves the cutter and the time of striking the conveyor tapes. This proposal, however, has served merely to introduce many unsolved cutting problems.

Other proposals have involved mechanisms for positively preventing the before-described bowing' or curling of the head of the sheet during its travel between the cutter and the conveyor tapes. One of these was to introduce inclinedly disposed or curved stationary or movable members in the path of travel of the sheets between the cutter and the conveyor tapes. These serve to engage the head of each sheet, immediately after leaving the cutter, thus resisting the tendency of 'the heads of the sheets to bend, and thereby tending to keep the sheets more or less straight. One such proposal for preventing bowing or curling of the head of the sheet has been the use of a short line of inclinedly disposed tapes. This proposal has not heretofore, however, been successful. In order to assure the straightening-out of the heads of the sheets, the inclinedly disposed tapes have been run at an excessively high speed, a speed considerably higher than the speed of the conveyor tapes. Because of such high speed, there was no difficulty in straightening out the head of the sheet; but a new dimculty was introduced in that the slower-moving conveyor tapes could not carry the tails of the sheets fast enough awavfrom the faster-moving inclinedly disposed tapes, with the result that the latter caused the tail of each sheet to become curled up. 'I'his curved tail stood right in the way of the head of the next-'following sheet at the overlapping point., resulting in as bad a jumbled mass of sheets as occurred Without the aid of the inclinedly disposed tapes. Up to thepresent time, therefore, theuse of clinedly disposed tapes, for this and other reasons, has not met with favor. 1 An object of the invention is to improve upon methods and machines of the above-described character. Y

Other and further objects will be explained hereinafter and will be particularly pointed out 5 in the appended claims. t.

With these ends in view, according to a feature of the present invention, the inclinedly disposed tapes are operated at approximately the samespeed as the speed of the conveyor tapes. The 0 advantages of straightening out the heads ofthe sheets are thusretaine'd without introducing any rcurlingof the tails of the sheets.

In the single gure' of the drawing,y the in'- vention is illustrated as embodied, in preferred- 56 form. ina conventional,sheetconvertingunit,

' a lay-boy (not shown).

the cutting unit being illustrated as of the rotary type.

A web l3 is illustrated as led from a roll or rolls 50 of paper or similar material between feed rolls 52 and over a stationary bed knife or cutter 4, mounted upon a cutter unit 69. The

term web, paper, sheet, or its equivalent,

roll 66. The belts or tapes 2 are disposed ap-` proximately horizontal, substantially parallel to the bed knife 4, at a level below the level at which the web -is fed between the rolls 52. The belts 2 cooperate with conveyor tapes or belts 6, mounted under a roll 8 and around a roll 68, to feed the sheets further, ultimately into The tapes 2 and 6 are actuated by mechanism 581, acting upon the rolls 66 and 68, desirably at a speed approximate- 1y ten per cent faster than the speed of `the web 3, as determined by the feed rolls 52. The mechanism 58 may be in the form of a link chain engaging sprocket wheels upon the shafts that it turns. The roll 8 is shown positioned to the left of the rolls 66 and 68, and the roll 68 is shown raised slightly above the tapes 2 to provide a space in which the tapes 2 and 6 may bite the heads 62 of the oncoming sheets.

For the reasons before given, the sheets 56, as they travel from the cutters 4 and 54 to the tapes 2, become endowed with a tendency to curllness that would cause them to travel in the manner indicated by the dotted curved line 60. The head end 62 of each sheet 56 would thus have a tendency to strike the tapes 2 substantially vertically, about at right angles to the tapes 2, as shown by the dotted curved line 60, or even slightly turned over or under.

The concavity of the curve 60 is not always compensated for by the slightly higher speed of the belts 2 with respect to the feed rolls 52. The-head end 62 of the web 3, therefore, instead `of traveling smoothly on to the tapes 2, may,

sooner or later, become folded down upon the belts 2 by cooperating tapes or belts 6.- Further smooth feeding of the sheets into the lay-boy (not shown) becomes then impossible, because of their mussed-up condition. It becomes necessary to stop the machine and lose time in starting afresh, besides involving high loss of paper sheets as waste.

According to a feature of the present invention, the head 62 of the web is caused, instead,

'to strike against or engage, at 63, a line of slopcausing any jumbling of the sheetsi ing or inclinedly disposed tapes 5, positioned between the bed knife 4 and the tapes 2, in the path lof feeding movement of the head 62 of the web (or the sheets 56, if previously cut). As shown,

the engagement at 63 takes place prior to the cutting action, but the operation would be the same if the head 62 of the sheet were to engage the tapes 5 after the web had been severed to form a sheet. The phrase a unit of sheet material, or its equivalent, therefore, will be employed to designate either a web or a sheet or a plurality ofr sheets. The direction of 5 is such that the head superposed webs or incline of the tapes end 62 of a web 3 may strike the tapes 6. at 63, ata much smaller'angle than it would strike the tapes 2, as indicated by the dotted line 60, an angle such that the web is gradually straightened out or uncurved thereby, and thus caused to reach the tapes 2 smoothly. The tapes 5 thus constitute a suitable transfer conveyor for feeding the sheets from the knives 4 and 54 to the tape conveyor 2 during the uncurvi'ng. In this manner, the approximate right angle between the dotted-line curve 60 and the tapes 2 becomes broken up, becoming converted into an acute angle on the conveyor tapes 5. The tapes 5 then lead the sheets smoothly to the conveyor tapes 2 and 6.

When the tail 64 of a sheet 56 reaches the tapes 5, it does not become curled, or whipped under, or over, the body of the' sheet, as has been lthe case with the'before-described highspeed sloping tapes heretofore proposed. The

head 62 of the next-following sheet 56, or of the web 3, before the next-following sheet is cut, is thus enabled to travel over the tail 64 of the previous sheet, at the overlapping point 65, at the left of the tapes 2, smoothly, and without In the case of tandem machines, where overlapping does not take place, a corresponding advantage is obtained in that the finished pile of sheets in the lay-boy (not shown) is free from sheets having their tails 64 folded under.

Since the tapes 2, as-before stated, travel ap proximately ten per cent faster than the speed of the web 3, it would serve no useful purpose to drive the inclined tapes 5 at a speed much less than the speed of the tapes 2, as there would not then be a very great improvement over a stationary inclined board. The tapes 5 are therefore shown actuated bythe mechanism 58 at approximately the same speed as the speed of the tapes 2. To drive the tapes 5 at a speed greatly higher than the speed of the tapes 2, as before stated, is objectionable. It is permissible. however, to drive the tapes 5 at a speed slightly higher, or even slightly lower, than the tapes 2 but, of course, higher than the speed of the web 3. Such speeds will .be included in the specification and the claims within the expression approximately the same speed as the speed of the tapes 2," or its equivalent.

The action of the tapes 5 is particularly advantageous when used with a cylindrical rotary knife 54, more especially when the knife is provided with' shields, as disclosed in Letters Patent 1,882,403, to Charles B. Maxson, issued October 11, 1932, as a very good lead is thereby obtained. Quite satisfactory results, however, have been obtained irrespective of the type of knife employed, under all conditions of speed, stock, etc., heretofore tested. In some cases, it is desirable to raise the whole cutter unit 68 that carries the cutter 4 slightly, with respect to the position formerly occupied in .the machine, provide of which is slightly curved, engaging and simultaneously moving the head of the unit to uncurve it, feeding the unit further while uncurving it, and thereafter feeding the unit further at ap speed as the speed of 4. A machine of the character described havis slightly curved, engaging and simultaneously moving the head of the unit while fed at the downward incline-to uncurve it, feeding the unit further while uncurvingY it, and thereafter feeding the unit further near the lower level at approximately at the same speed as the speed of feed of the unit during the uncurving.

3. A method of the character described comprising feeding to a conveyor a unit of'sheet material the head of which is slightly curved, and engaging and simultaneously moving the head of the unit prior to its reaching the conveyor to uncurve it and, while uncurving it. feeding it to the conveyor at approximately the same the conveyor.

ing, in combination, means for feeding units of sheet material, means for engaging the head of each unit fed by thefeeding means and thereupon feeding the said unit further, means inj in the direction of incline clinedly disposed between the-two first-named means for engaging the head of each unit prior to its engagement by the second-named means,

and means for actuating the inclinedly disposed means in the direction of incline toward the second-named means at approximately the same speed as the speed of operation'of the secondnamed means.

5. A machine of the character described having, in combination, means for feeding units of sheet material, a conveyor disposed below the feeding means for engaging the head of eachfunit fed by the feeding means and thereupon feeding the said unit further, a conveyor'inclinedly disposed between the feeding means and the firstnamed conveyor for engaging the head of each unit prior to its engagement by the first-named conveyor,and means for actuating the secondnamed conveyor in the direction of incline toward the first-named" conveyor at approximately the same speed as the speed of operation of the rst-named conveyor.

6. A machine of the character described having, in combination; means for feeding units of sheet material, a tape conveyor disposed below the feeding means for engaging the head of each unit fed by the feeding means and thereupon feeding the said unit further, a' tape conveyor inclinedly disposed between the feeding means and the first-named conveyor for engaging the head of each unit prior to its engagementby the rst-named conveyor, and means for actuating the second-named conveyor in the direction of incline toward the first-named conveyor at approximately the same speed as the speed of operation o'f the first-named conveyor.

7. A machine of the character described having, in combination; a cutter, for cutting sheet material into units, means for engaging the head thereupon feeding the unit away from the cutter,A

means inclinedly disposed in the path `of feeding movement of the-unit between the cutter and the second-named feeding means'for engaging the` head of each unit prior to its engagement by the second-named feedingv means, and means for actuating the inclinedly disposed means in the direction of incline toward the Asecond-named feeding means at approximately the same speed as the speed of operation of the second-named feeding means.

9. A machine of the character described having, in combination, a cutter for cutting sheet material into units, a conveyor disposed below the cutter for engaging vthe head of each unit and thereupon feeding the said unit away from the cutter, a conveyor inclinedly disposed between the cutter'and the first-named conveyor for engaging the head of each gagement by the first-named conveyor, and means for actuating the second-named conveyor toward` the first-named conveyor at approximately the same speed as the speed of operation ofthe first-named .conveyor.

10. A machine of the character described hav- A ing, in combination, a cutter for cutting sheet material into unitsfa tape conveyor disposed below the cutter for engaging the head of each unit and thereupon feeding the said unit away from the cutter, a tape conveyor inclinedly disposed between the cutter and the rst-named conveyor.

whereby the unwound material becomes slightly curved, cutting. the unwound material into units,

feeding the units with their heads slightly curved, engaging and simultaneously moving the head of each unit to uncurve it, feeding the unit further while uncurving it, andthereafter feeding the unit further at approximately the same speed as the speed of feed of the unit during the uncurv- `ing.

12. A method of the character described comprising unwinding material from a roll or rolls, -whereby the unwound material becomes slightly curved, cutting the unwound material into units, feeding the units Awith their heads slightly curved at a downward incline from one level toward another level, engaging and simultaneously moving the head of each unit while fed at the downward incline to uncurve it, feeding the unit further while uncurving it, and thereafter feeding the unit further near the lower level at approximately the same speed as the speed of feed of the unit during the uncurving.

13. A method. of the character described com-l prising unwinding material from a roll or rolls, whereby the unwound material becomes slightly curved, cutting the unwound material into units, feeding the units with their heads slightly curved unitprior to its enit, feeding it to the conveyor at approximately the same speed as the speed of the conveyor.

14. A machine of the character described having, in combination, a cutter for cutting sheet material into units, means for unwinding the material to be cut into units from a roll or rolls and for leading the material so unwound to the cutter, whereby the unwound material becomes led to and past the cutter slightly curved, means for engaging the head of each unit to uncurve it and thereupon feeding the unit further away from the cutter while uncurving it, and means for thereafter feeding the unit further at approximately the same speed asthe speed of feed of the unit during the uncurving.

15. In a machine of the character described in which sheet material is unwound from a roll or rolls and led to a cutter to be cut into units that are slightly curved, means for engaging the head of each unit to uncurve it 'and for feeding the unit further whileuncurving it, and means for thereafter feeding the unit further at approximately the same speed as the speed of feed of the unit during the uncurving.

16. A machine of the character described having,'in combination. means for feeding at a down'- ward incline from one level toward another level a unit of sheet material the head of which is slightly curved, means for engaging the head of each unit while fed at the downward incline to uncurve it and for feeding the unit further while uncurving it, and means for thereafter feeding the unit further nearthe lower level at approximately the same speed as the' speed of feed oi the unit during the uncurving.

17. A machine of the character described having, in combination, means for feeding units of sheet material the heads of which are slightly curved, means for engaging the head of each unit fed by thefeeding means to uncurve it and for thereupon feeding the said unit further while uncurving it, and means for thereafter feeding the said unit further at approximately the same speed as the speed of feed of the unit during the uncurving.

LOUIS L. MATTHEWS. 

